farndon's real deal /1965, 70?? bought in s. barbara, CA

[el-saturn]

finally fitting a piece Of LOTUS TC history: my all new crank made for the racing dept back in 1965, 70 ??? made by englands finest many decades ago? - remember, all u metallurgists: aging a forged (or even more so a casted component adds: better fatigue, better torque etc). --- plus less counterweight means more truffel dishes for the driver (i import 'em from italy) sandy - not only a car gourmet as all of u, but also a foody as i must add!

[rgh0]

An unusual crank

its a six bolt / lip seal sump crank, so post 1968 when they were introduced.
It is also a 4 counterweight crank which I have never seen from Fardon for a twin cam, i have only see 8 counterweight cranks.

It was clearly made to be similar to the cast ford crank visually -- is it a forging or a casting ?

cheers
Rohan

[el-saturn]

it's forged and is a six bolt model. - good for 8000rpm as i was told! sandy

[65ginetta]

I came from Coventry and was quite familiar with Farndons in 60-80's. A former colleague of mine purchased and owned the company for a couple of years as part of a Public Company. George Farndon retired to look after his race horses, and the Kiddy brothers, who ran the business, had an EN40B billet crank and they also put down a forging tool to make an EN19 crank for Twin Cam's. If I recall Farndon used Garringtons for forgings but I could be wrong, its a long time ago. Doug Kiddy started his own Crank maker and my friend ended up selling the company to the Management and I emigrated to the USA. My Elan has a Farndon BDA billet I modified for Twin Cam application.
I

[el-saturn]

does anybody know WHICH clients got these or did the 23s at le mans get these?? sandy 36 4982

[promotor]

I came from Coventry and was quite familiar with Farndons in 60-80's. A former colleague of mine purchased and owned the company for a couple of years as part of a Public Company. George Farndon retired to look after his race horses, and the Kiddy brothers, who ran the business, had an EN40B billet crank and they also put down a forging tool to make an EN19 crank for Twin Cam's. If I recall Farndon used Garringtons for forgings but I could be wrong, its a long time ago. Doug Kiddy started his own Crank maker and my friend ended up selling the company to the Management and I emigrated to the USA. My Elan has a Farndon BDA billet I modified for Twin Cam application.
I

Interesting info, thanks for posting. Was this always under the name of Farndon or were there other names? Also where there any "branch-off" companies related to Farndon (ie maybe where staff set-up their own companies), or a follow on from them under any other names?

[Chancer]

Forged rods from the period marked SDF were made by Smethwick Drop Forgings, I went there once on the trail of a 4th short stroke BDA rod, I did not get past the security gate and it was probably 20 years since they had forged the ones I had!

[65ginetta]

IIR Doug Kiddy left Farndon's and set up a small crank and rod making facility in Hinkley, Leicestershire which subsequently evolved to Arrow Precision. I'm not sure but I think conrods were SDF and cranks were Garringtons. I think I may have a book celebrating Garringtons 60th anniversary, they were part of GKN but were closed in the 80's.
Farndons and Arrow still have web sites so its good that they have managed to survive the changes and contraction in manufacturing demand in UK

[el-saturn]

.....by my logic it's a 100% farndon product. otherwise lotus and farndon wouldn't be part of the tooling! sandy

[rgh0]

......, had an EN40B billet crank and they also put down a forging tool to make an EN19 crank for Twin Cam's. .......
I

Sandy
Sounds like this is the basis of your crank as the EN19 forging. The EN40 billet crank with 8 counterweights is what I think I have been familiar with

cheers
R

[cabc26b]

This looks similar to one I have , however mine has ford looking part numbers, I will post up a picture on a separate thread - I could use some help p determining it's origins because I can't seem to decode part numbers ,

George

[Davidb]

Where did Allen Crank fit in this picture? Did they become Farndon?

I had a crank made by Arrow Precision and it was a thing of beauty-six cylinder and quite light-it cost so much I had to take a second job!

[65ginetta]

The original Ford Crank was a cast component, made from Spheroidal Graphite Iron, sometimes called Nodular Iron or SG Iron. It was as close as possible a cast 'almost' steel crank but with all the problems of stress due to high speed rotation of a cast material. Initially the Ford performance cranks were EN19 forgings and to my memory sourced from Garringtons part of GKN, several crankmakers also produced these including Cosworth in Northampton, Farndon in Coventry and Laystall in the Black country (I think). The non OEM crank makers had to pay for die sets and put their names on them to prevent the competitors using their tools. When the billet crank became available it was made from 'shafting steel' EN40B with a normalized and nitride hardened coat and could be subject to much higher revs.
This subject is turning into an "all our yesterdays event"

[Chancer]

I have never understood how a billet crank could be considered stronger or superior to a forged one, makes no sense at all to me.

Better than a cast one for sure but how can a homogenous material match let alone exceed a forging? I am losing the technical terms as well as my English but its all about the material grain flow (wrong term) in the forging, isotropic/non isotropic rings a bell.

Same story with con rods, even more so in fact given their stress loadings.

[rcraven]

I have never understood how a billet crank could be considered stronger or superior to a forged one, makes no sense at all to me.

This seems to me a well-reasoned article on the differences and pros and cons of cast, forged and billet cranks, though that doesn't mean it's right: http://www.hotrod.com/articles/0710phr-crankshaft-tech/

I had an Arrow crank (and rods) made for a non-Lotus car and have been pleased with it, though production took ages. The engine builder's excuse was that I wasn't a racing company and therefore went to the back of the queue every time Arrow got a more important order. At least they seem to supply Lotus cranks off-the-shelf.